All our troubles have come upon us from the
failure of the Church to live in the radiant atmosphere of this belief,
to make belief a life, a life that needs no dogmas and expresses itself
by love.
But this was not to be. The Church cultivated fear of God, and could not
bring itself to trust human nature.
Belief passed into dogma; the mind of man was put in fetters as
well as his body; the Church built one prison and the State
another. . . . All this was closely connected with the idea of the
_potentate_ God which Church and State, in consequence of their
political alliance, had restored, against the martyr protest of
Jesus Christ.
But how should man be treated? Here it is that Dr. Jacks makes a most
valuable suggestion:
Treat man, after the mind of Christ, as a being whose first need is
for Light, and whose second need is for government, and you will
find that as his need for light is progressively satisfied, his
need for government will progressively diminish.
Is it not a significant fact that while the churches are
complaining of emptiness, the schools, the colleges, the
universities, are packed to overflowing?
Dr. Jacks has asked quite recently a Frenchman, a Swede, a Dutchman, an
American, a Chinaman, and a Japanese, "What is the leading interest in
your country? What do your people really believe in?" The answer in each
case was, "Education.
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